Life with Foxcy: death, warfare & great misfortune

Foxcy (far left) and fellow students bear Governor Sir Peter Ipatas at Laigam in 2006 

By DANIEL KUMBON - PNG Attitude

WABAG - The young boy thought his mother was sound asleep and tried to lie down beside her as he had always done, clinging to her warm body for comfort and safety.

He did not understand why some people gently lifted him and placed him some distance away to play games with other children.

He was too young to realise that the lifeless form he saw people sitting around and crying over was gone for good, never to be with her favourite, and last, child.

His mother had treated him with special care after she had lost a girl before he was born. She had four children - two boys and two girls - but Foxcy was her favourite.

Today Foxcy Yambai from Laiagam in Enga Province is 26 and he seems to have been born to suffer loss and misfortune all his life. First his mother and then, when he was in Grade 7 in 2004, his father, this latter tragedy severely disrupting his education.

I know Foxcy well as the gifted handyman living next door who can do anything with his hands, especially carpentry.

He has been a family friend for nearly 10 years but never told me his heart-wrenching tale until recently while he helped me fix the door of my backyard cookhouse.

I had intended sharing on Facebook an old photo of Enga governor Sir Peter Ipatas being chaired by a group of students from Laiagam.

Then I noticed that one of them resembled Foxcy, who was right there in the yard helping me.

“Is this you?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s me,” he said with a look of shock and dismay which he turned into a forced smile.

Foxcy did not want to remind himself that some of the young men in the photo now led successful lives having benefited from the support of their parents and the provincial government’s free education, while he had missed out completely.

On that day, he had put on his best clothes and, with the other students, welcomed the governor to Laiagam.

Sir Peter had made the visit on 17 March 2006, just before he was suspended to face a Leadership Tribunal investigating allegations of corruption.

The Tribunal was a feared institution described as ‘the lion’s mouth’ because few leaders escaped once caught in its claws.

As soon as he landed in his yellow helicopter, the students politely asked him to sit in the chair they had specially prepared and then heaved him onto their shoulders.

“We wanted to see if he would win his Leadership Tribunal trial and planned to carry him in the chair for all to see,” Foxcy explained. “People had to see the governor’s facial expressions and body language to make their judgment whether he would win or lose his case.”

It is traditional Engan practice to make predictions of a person’s fate - how they will conduct their future lives - based on how they present themselves in the public domain, how they perform at a singsing, how they dress for the occasion and how they distribute food or give a public speech.

As the governor sat aloft in the chair, the people would observe if he showed any fear of being dropped or expressed any sign of doubt in the young students who carried him to the grandstand to make his public speech.

The people would also observe the students to detect signs of weakness or fatigue.

Many people who turned up that day affirmed Governor Ipatas would win his case because he had acted normally and was sure of himself. There was no guilt or doubt on his face.

And the eight students who had represented the people had also shown confidence - no missteps, no weariness or frowns but open smiles indicating unity, stability and displaying genuine support for the governor.

Sure enough, five months later, in August, Governor Ipatas ended his case with a lighter penalty than many had feared, a fine and not dismissal from office.

The tribunal had found him guilty on 16 counts for which he was fined K1,000 each.

Supporters in Port Moresby who packed the Waigani court house to hear the verdict dug deep into their pockets and raised K30,000 on the spot, almost double the required amount.

Back home in Enga, feasting and jubilation caught on like a bushfire when the announcement was made of the governor’s win.

Foxcy Yambai was among hundreds of people from all over the province who poured into Wabag to receive the governor and continue the celebrations. Foxcy the orphan had repeated Grade 7 in 2005 after leaving school to attend his father’s funeral back in 2004.

Now, Foxcy was in Grade 8, Governor Ipatas came to Laiagam and the students decided to carry him on their shoulders.

Life seemed to be changing for Foxcy and the following year he successfully completed Grade 8 and was accepted to for Grade 9 at Philikambi High School.

But bad luck seemed to follow him everywhere and he was forced to return to his village when the school was forced to shut down as the result of tribal warfare.

He was able to return to Philikambi the following year to do Grade 9 and this time things moved smoothly until he completed Grade 10 in 2009, winning a place to attend Kopen Secondary School in Wabag.

But further misfortune as he had no money to pay his project fees. The school refused part payment so Foxcy was forced to waste another year unable to advance further up the education ladder.

Then there was further tribal warfare and his life once again became difficult. So he visited his cousin, Angu Kikala, to ask if she would allow him to stay with her family in Wabag.

Angu took pity on him and said he could until the fighting stopped. And that’s how we came to know Foxcy, because Angu and her husband Philip Kikala were my neighbours.

Philip was the former member for Lagaip Porgera and he and his wife Angu were my school mates at St Paul’s Lutheran High School in Wapenamanda in the early 1970s.

When there was a ceasefire in the tribal war, Foxcy went home and built himself a house in his village. But fighting erupted again and he had to return to Wabag. His house was burnt to the ground when the whole Pyain tribe was involved in the fight.

In Wabag, Foxcy started selling buai, loose cigarettes and similar good to raise some funds hoping to re-enroll at Kopen Secondary School.

But the cost for Grade 11was K2,000 and Foxcy did not have that much. Again the school authorities would not accept part payment.

To make matters worse, his Grade 10 Certificate had been lost by the deputy school principal.

He couldn’t do anything without his Grade 10 certificate so he gave up trying to pursue an education at Kopen or anywhere else.

At this stage, he lost faith in the education system. The much hyped up free education policy meant nothing to him now.

Little did he know that he could easily get a copy of his Grade 10 certificate from the measurement unit at education department headquarters in Port Moresby.

But he couldn’t afford to pay for the airfare to Port Moresby.

Foxcy longs to complete Grade 12, he longs to see total peace among his Pyain tribesman and he longs for his village of Mamale – which was very advanced village and home to the Apostolic Church headquarters, Laiagam High School, Laiagam Primary School, its main street lined with modern shops.

But all this is gone.

And gone too are more than 80 Pyain tribesmen killed in the prolonged warfare.

Foxcy today

“When you add all the people from other tribes killed in the fight, the death toll is well over 100,” Foxcy said. “This is a lot of people killed over a piece of land.

“I hate tribal warfare. I have seen it destroy my proud tribe, my proud village and all the mission and government institutions gone. I have seen all this happen.’

“I worry for my future and for the future of all the small Pyain children born during the conflict. What legacy will we leave behind for them?”

Foxcy regrets he has not been able to benefit from Sir Peter Ipatas’ free education policy considering the fact he had carried him on his young shoulders 13 years ago.

“I just wish to complete Grade 12, but I can’t,” he said.

Go to this link for more: https://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2019/07/life-with-foxcy-death-warfare-great-misfortune.html